According to the paintings of Piet Mondrian, it seems like he was an artist who spent lots of time making lines. Before Starting children on Mondrian for kids or any artist for kids it’s a wise idea to get books that have pictures of the paintings of the artist you want the children to learn about .Many of the artists have books specially written for kids. For Mondrian I only saw books like this one on Mondrian
These are books more for adults but, they serve the purpose as they have pictures of his wok. Wikipedia says this about Mondrian:
“In the early paintings of this style the lines delineating the rectangular forms are relatively thin, and they are gray, not black. The lines also tend to fade as they approach the edge of the painting, rather than stopping abruptly. The forms themselves, smaller and more numerous than in later paintings, are filled with primary colors, black, or gray, and nearly all of them are colored; only a few are left white.
During late 1920 and 1921, Mondrian’s paintings arrive at what is to casual observers their definitive and mature form. Thick black lines now separate the forms, which are larger and fewer in number, and more of them are left white than was previously the case. This was not the culmination of his artistic evolution, however. Although the refinements became more subtle, Mondrian’s work continued to evolve during his years in Paris.”
When teaching children about famous artists we usually try to give them the process only art activities that replicate that artists work as closely as possible.
Since so many of Mondrian’ s work has straight lines and color I decided to use rolls of different colored tape for this activity.
We had a number of solid rolls of colored tape along with some smaller patterned rolls. The tape was quite easy to rip by hand but, some of the children were getting frustrated and getting the tape all tangled up.
As a result we ripped long pieces of the tape and put them on the sides of the tables for the kids to use as they saw fit.
Some of the kids ripped those pieces into even smaller pieces and had their own collection of pieces ready for them to use.
The group that was doing this activity varied greatly in terms of age. There were 4 year olds all the way up to a 7 year old.
The differences when children of different ages do these type of art activities usually break down as they did here also, to children who are just getting the hang of the materials and are not really thinking. Those who are carefully placing their pieces down in a a thoughtful patter to those who actually use the material to create something more representational.
As you look through the images below I am sure you will be able to see which children were at which stages.
Check out this post on Mondrian watercolor painting to take your Mondrian art learning a step further.
